1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for operating accelerometer based controls, and, more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for operating accelerometer based controls that are being carried in a moving vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many console game systems today, as well as other electronic devices, make use of accelerometer and/or gyroscopic based input devices to achieve a more natural and immersive experience. This trend is expected to continue and expand into other types of devices, such as media systems, automotive entertainment systems, portable game systems, etc.
These controllers are currently ineffective when used in a mobile environment, such as an automobile, train, plane, ship, etc., due to the motion of the vehicle being interpreted as user input. Accelerometer-based devices may also produce erroneous output signals due to bouncing, swaying and tilting of the vehicle during its acceleration or deceleration. It may be possible for the output of an accelerometer-based device to be compensated for the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle based on the output signal of the vehicle's speedometer. However, the output signal of the vehicle's speedometer is not indicative of, and thus cannot compensate for, lifting of the front end of the vehicle and dropping of the rear end of the vehicle during acceleration (or vice versa during deceleration). More generally, the output signal of a vehicle speedometer cannot be used to compensate the output of an on-board accelerometer for the roll, pitch and yaw of the vehicle. Each of the roll, pitch and yaw of the vehicle may affect the output of an on-board accelerometer, which may result in both random and systematic errors. For the above reasons, known in-vehicle accelerometer-based devices may produce output signals that are subject to error.
Accordingly, what is neither anticipated nor obvious in view of the prior art is an apparatus and method for automatically compensating the output signals of a motion detecting input device for the motion of a vehicle that carries the input device.